Name: The Strain
Rating: 3.354166666666667 (48 reviews)
ISBN: 9780007349180

Guillermo del Toro

Charles Hogan

High-concept thriller with a supernatural edge from world-famous director, whose films include Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy.

The Strain

The strain

Pavonini

Forgot to mark this as finished. This was a romp. Very silly, not very scary, and I thought the mechanics of the... whatever we're going to call the infected, were a bit ridiculous. Fun enough to read and a good distraction, but I won't be keeping it. Straight to the charity shop with this.

Michelle Xu

2.5

I was so looking forward to reading this book. I saw huge billboards in LA for the TV show on FX and then saw the same cover at a bookstore. I picked it up because I’d been lacking in the horror/zombie department and wanted to get back into it. Unfortunately, the book didn’t live up to the hype I created myself. By the end of the novel, I was stuck between rating it a 2 or 3. I thought back to my recent reads and decided I liked it more than what I last rated a 2 and it definitely did NOT deserve to be rated the same as American Gods. So I’m stuck with a 2.5…

The novel began with so much potential. It was suspenseful, unique, and a little scary. As the novel progressed, it definitely hit a lull half way through. There was too much focus on Eph’s marriage and child drama and each character seemed superficial and one-dimensional. As I continued reading, I definitely could see how the FX show would be successful… but it just didn’t deliver as a book. The characters fit a standard TV mold, I could tell who would live and who would die and what could happen. Additionally, as the novel progressed characters started behaving so irrationally. There were so many moments where I thought “Well this would all be okay had he not done that…”

There were definitely moments I liked. There were parts of the book I sped through because the action and suspense built up fantastically. But honestly, I think what killed this book was the characters. I didn’t particularly like any of them that much and didn’t have an attachment to them. Eph wasn’t particularly likeable. I hated how they kept referencing how much he liked milk… that was just unnecessary and weird. It didn’t distinguish him anymore than that because it was so superficial. Even after reading about Setrakian’s history, I didn’t connect with him on a deeper level either. Etc. etc. this was pretty much the case for all the characters.

Lastly, I think what took me out of the novel a bit was the antagonist. Both The Master and Eldrich Palmer weren’t villains I liked. I honestly would rather have them both just have been killed off and then everyone dealing with a normal zombie/vampire apocalypse. I hated reading the chapters with the two villains. They were boring and honestly unnecessary. I have a hard time describing why I didn’t like them so much. But it might just go back to the character development thing. Either way, I might watch the show and see if I like that more. Honestly, the book was underwhelming. Only giving it a 2.5 stars for some of the fun scenes like Ann Barbour feeding her neighbor to her vampire husband, the turned little girl who goes back to the dad, the fat dude roaming New York, the nanny running from Joan Luss, and more.

Malin Alexander

Overall a good read.

Things I liked:

1) The plot
2) The vampires, although they're more of a mix between vamp and zombie if you ask me. Kinda made me think of From Dusk Til Dawn with George Clooney.
3) The fact that for once, the kid of the hero is not an annoying lil bi*ch. Zack was smart and understood more than most adults, he wasn't 'in the way' like most kids are in most similar stories. 
4) Setrakian: LOVED the old man! He was badass and knew a lot about everything and to be honest, I found he was the true hero of this all.
5) The suspense. It is after all a horror story. Not as scary as one might think but still well written.
6) The writing style. 

Things I didn't like:

1) The female characters. Seriously, I was SO disappointed. There are literally TWO women in this book, and one of them is the ex-wife of the hero and the other one is his co-worker with who he also happens to have a "thing"?? REALLY?? You couldn't come up with ANY female character that wouldn't have been somehow in love/lust with the male one?? Ffs that was shit*y. It made me so mad. OH YEAH and by the way when the REAL action starts, who has to stay behind and babysit for the hero? THE FRIGGIN FEMALE CHARACTER. WHAT. THE. HELL. 
2) The time it took to get to the climax. There wasn't enough action before that.
3) The fact that there were a looot of other little stories to cut the main one, I know it was to explain the whole "they're turning into vamps" thing but it was kinda long and boring after a while.
4) Also, waaay to many characters (that were minor ones, I know, and they died and became vamps, sure). I mean it was useful to the plot to a certain extent but after a bit you just go "huh? Who the F are you?" because of all the names and the fact that you don't get to know them all that well (they're minor characters after all).

So, all in all: a good read, good suspense, I definitely want to read the next one because well I wanna know what happens to the characters still alive and I did enjoy the writing style. Could do better with the women. Really. Get a grip, dude. 

Also I was watching the tv show Helix and it's absolutely the same plot (except they're more zombies than vampires but still): one dude who's the main hero and also the chief of some sciencey thing about viruses, he goes with his team to investigate an outbreak of a virus that is turning people into zombies trying to pass on the virus to all the others (while still somehow staying themselves and being lucid from time to time), and guess what, there's two hot chicks: one is his ex wife and the other a colleague who's also a love interest. Yep. Same story.

Judy Hudgins

Unusual twist on a vampire theme. I can see this being turned into a movie.

Bryan Alexander

I really wanted to like this book. I did. 
del Toro's a creator I respect deeply. I was charmed by the thought of his trying out a new take on vampirism.

And the book began well. The now-familiar trope of a mystery jetliner still resonates. The conception of vampires as, well, something other than sparkly ((view spoiler)[parasitic worms turning people into vicious viral vectors, complete with spring-loaded mandible stingers and excreting while feeding, yum! (hide spoiler)]) worked well for me (although owes much to the badly underappreciated Charnas classic The Vampire Tapestry. 

The opposition of science and emergency management to monstrosity had a lot of promise. There's also a fun sense of humor, from a snap-crackle-pop gag to a villain named after a Phil Dick character ("Eldritch Palmer"). 

But then... The Strain downshifts into something lesser.

The characters go nowhere, and even become less interesting.

The van Helsing plot starts bravely, then becomes very silly and hard to believe.

The crisis stops being realistic. Emergency services and government responses simply stop happening one day in, without any explanation. Barely anyone uses the internet to send or obtain information.

A 9-11/Ground Zero plot goes nowhere.

And there's a sad gender bias, with men as central action heroes and women staying behind to ask helpful questions and otherwise do little.

One bad sign was my desire to speed read from around 40% of the way in.

I have no desire to read the sequel, nor watch the tv series.

I hope del Toro fares better in his next writing project.

The Strain

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